User blog:Madrich29/Dark Parables: Portrait of the Stained Princess Review
THERE ARE SPOILERS!!! First, let's start off with the pros: -'The music:' Not going to lie, I really liked the music. The guitars and violins mixed in really helped set up a fantasy mood. -'The aspect of the plot:' I can give props to where it's due. The plot is there, it's just the execution is what fell short. Now the Cons: -'The Predictability': This game was so ''predictable it hurt. I thought that with the princess out of the painting that she would be doing some creepy stuff. The Dark Prince would be like a mischievous character that would mess with us but help us out in the end. I don't know, just ''something. Instead, we get the normal "it's not me, it's him" plot that I was hoping wasn't going to happen. Instead, the Princess is the victim while the Prince has to take all the blame. Why couldn't the Princess just be the main antagonist with the apprentice being brainwashed into being her knight? That way we could have more scenes with the prince and fewer scenes of the Princess being the victim. '''-The character building: '''Not including you (or the detective), we have three other characters. Honestly, there is hardly any character growth. Just minutes into the game I was questioning why people were doing what they were doing. For example, a Swan Knight pushes you off the roof of a building and then is friendly for the rest of the game. Why? Who knows. Prince Fiachra is the biggest one with no character growth. I was hoping for an arc with this guy and he did trap the Princess in the painting but he feels bad so he becomes like an anti-hero or something. He wants to make up for his past mistake. BUT NO!! How about we make him want revenge at the end because the Princess won't love a guy that trapped her in a painting and hurt dozens of her people? Underdevelopment is not appreciated. -'''The Dark Aspect: '''You know, for a game that's called "Dark Parables" there wasn't anything dark about this game. Wow, a girl comes out of a painting! That's neat, I guess. The dark aspect is what keeps players on their toes, keeps them guessing. I get it, it's supposed to be a fairytale spinoff but common! Fairytale aspect means more ways to get better spooks. Trapping people in paintings was a little creepy until you learn that they can come out later. Once we realize that the Princess isn't a threat, then it just doesn't amp up the darkness at all. The atmosphere isn't there and nothing about the notes we find, or the places we go help the mood. -'''The Lack of the Dark Prince: '''Now, I'm not going to lie, the reason I got this game was mainly because of the thumbnail. The Dark Prince himself is standing there looking handsome (what can I say, I'm a sucker for pretty boys) and thought he looked interesting. So going into this game I thought that he was going to be heavily in the game. However, the best you're going to get is him showing up at the end. We have letters and stories about Fiachra but it's like a last-minute decision was made to put him in. -'''The Animation: '''The animation was subpar at best. We have like 4-6 cutscenes and they all are not that great. -'''Characters Reasoning: '''The main reason for these games is to figure out who and why. If the why factor doesn't really fit, then it can be really hard to root for them. I get it, the Dark Prince was shunned for being weak and found the ''one ''person to connect with. However, breaking a promise doesn't mean that you can lock them in a painting forever okay? Okay. Not to mention that he still wants the princess after causing, what I can imagine, tens or hundreds of years of torture for not only the princess but her people as well. '''Pacing: '''This game's pacing is all over the place. Chapters fly by and you don't feel like they should be done yet. Characters make last-minute decisions that you have no idea what's going on. The timing just feels ''off. '' Honestly, there could be more that I could write, but those are just the main points. I was really hoping for a good fairytale-horror experience like what I got with Cursery: The Crooked Man and The Crooked Cat but that didn't happen. Overall, it's a meh game at best. Category:Blog posts